While it might be an emotionally harrowing time, it's important
not to lose sight of the bigger picture. You need to protect
yourself, your kids, and your future, and that means getting your
finances in order — pronto.

If divorce is looming, here are six ways to protect yourself
financially.

1. Identify all of your assets and clarify what's yours

Step one: Identify your assets. Before you can proceed with
anything else, you need to know how much money you have and where
it is. Next, clarify what's in your name and what belongs to your
spouse, including any mortgages, bank accounts, investments, and
other assets.

"A judge is going to care more about a good financial statement
than a picture of someone going out of a motel," Stanley Corey, a
certified financial planner and managing director at United Capital in Great Falls,
Virginia, told Business Insider. "It all comes down to the basics
of the dollars and cents, so get current statements of value of
assets and get things clarified."

2. Get copies of all your financial statements

Be careful not to rely on electronic copies, however, warns
Shelly Church, a certified financial planner and senior
vice president of investments for Raymond James. You don't
want to risk getting locked out of your information if a
vindictive spouse decides to change the passwords to all of the
joint accounts, so print everything out.

This includes bank account statements, tax forms, brokerage firm
statements, and any financial documents you've signed in the last
few years.

3. Secure some liquid assets

The last thing you want is for a petty spouse to leave you
without any cash, but it happens. Church recommends taking a
proactive approach: "If there's a joint account, [you] can
actually set up an account just in [your] name and move a certain
amount of assets over."

Don't wipe out the account, but make sure you have enough to
cover your bills until attorneys can get involved. Otherwise, the
only way to get access is to hold an emergency court hearing to
get temporary child support or temporary alimony.

"That's expensive and time-consuming, so if you can get some
assets that are liquid, some cash that's available, that's very
important and that will buy you a little bit of time," Church
explains.

It's
important to find out if you live in a community property or
equitable distribution state.Andy
Kiersz/Business Insider

4. Know your state's laws

If you live in a state with
community property laws, such as Washington, California, or
Texas, you could lose half of everything that's jointly owned in
a divorce.

In these states, marital assets — and
debts incurred by either spouse during the marriage — are
divided 50/50. However, separate property (anything held in only
one spouse's name, including property owned before marriage,
given as a gift, or inherited) is not taken into account.

5. Build a team

In addition to hiring an attorney, it's important to have a
trusted financial adviser in your corner — especially if your
spouse was typically the one to handle the money. Find someone
that you not only trust, but who is able to explain things to you
in a way that you understand.

"If there's a non-financially-savvy spouse, and they're not
really understanding, they sit in these meetings and smile and
nod, then they should probably go to somebody they truly
understand and somebody they're connecting with," Jacqueline Newman, a
managing partner at a top New York City divorce law firm, told
Business Insider.

Even if you're well-versed in finance, it's still important have
an experienced family law attorney and a financial adviser on
your team. Divorce is mired in emotion, so you'll want non-biased
parties to be able to speak on your behalf and ensure that you're
properly protected.

"You're going to need someone to be speaking for you, because
there's a lot of emotion involved in divorce, whether you
acknowledge it or not," Church says.

6. Decide what you want — and need

"When you normally go through the divorce process, the lawyers
are concerned with reaching an agreement for you to have a
settlement," Corey explains. "And they'll say, 'Can you live with
this? Can you deal with this?' They're doing the best that they
can to get the best deal or settlement for their client."

But if you aren't aware of what you need long-term, you could be
agreeing to a settlement that you actually can't deal
with. What sounds like a big number at the time could fall
incredibly short in reality. Take a wide-lens look at
your finances: How much do you need to maintain your standard of
living? How much will you need to support your kids?